Fernand Léger

Exhibited by Galleria d'Arte Maggiore g.a.m.

Material oil on canvas

Dimensions 65 × 92 cm

Place of Creation France

Price $2,000,000

Status Vetted

About the Work

Composition à la chaise (1929) exemplifies the distinctive visual language of Fernand Léger, a key figure in Cubism and 20th-century modern art. In this painting, geometric shapes and bold colors intertwine in a dynamic balance, with curved and angular lines suggesting the presence of a chair—fragmented and reassembled through an abstract lens.

Léger was notable for his fascination with the intersection of art and modern life, celebrating industrial forms and mechanization with a robust, almost mechanical aesthetic. His work is characterized by strong compositions where everyday objects are broken down and reconstructed into simplified forms, generating a visual rhythm of contrasting colors and spatial tensions.

Composition à la chaise captures this innovative approach, transforming a familiar object into a striking, energetic structure that reflects the vitality and pace of modernity. The painting embodies Léger’s commitment to integrating the machine age into artistic expression, merging abstraction with a tangible sense of the industrial world’s power and movement.

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Provenance

Galerie Louis Carré, Paris; Galerie Bonnier, Genève; Private collection, Milan; Private collection.

Literature

Exhibited :
Galerie Louis Carré, Paris, « Fernand Léger, Peintures artérieures à 1940 », text by Jean Bazaine, Louis Carré éditeur, 16 January - 5 February 1945, repr. p. 18 ;
Musée National d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, « Fernand Léger. Exposition rétrospective 1905- 1949 », texts bt Guillaume Apollinaire, 6 October - 13 November 1949, Mourlot éditeur, no. 53 ;
Louis Carré Gallery, New York, « 70th Anniversary Exhibition Léger », March 1951, no. 10 repr ;
Galerie Louis Carré, Paris, « La peinture sous le signe de Blause Cendras: Première exposition: Robert Delaunay, Fernand Léger », Louis Carré éditeur, 17 June - 31 July 1965, no. 11 ;
Galerie Bonnier, Genève , « Harry Laurons. Pierres, bronzes, terres-cuites de 1919 à 1944. Fernand Léger peintures de 1920 à 1947 », 1974, no. 19 repr. Col ; Galerie Isy Brachot, Bruxelles, Fernand Léger, 1975, no. 4.

Literature :
Georges Bauquier, curated by, « Fernand Léger. Catalogue raisonné 1929-1931 », Adrien Maeght Editeur, no. 611 p. 27.